Observation Date
12/27/2020
Observer Name
Cody Hughes
Region
Salt Lake » Little Cottonwood Canyon » Catherine's Pass
Location Name or Route
Catherines Pass
Weather
Sky
Clear
Wind Direction
Northwest
Wind Speed
Calm
Weather Comments
A beautiful day in the mountains,
Snow Characteristics
New Snow Depth
2"
New Snow Density
Medium
Snow Surface Conditions
Powder
Melt-Freeze Crust
Snow Characteristics Comments
2 inches of medium density snow with some graupel mixed in can go a long way to improving the skiing and riding conditions.
Red Flags
Red Flags
Collapsing
Poor Snowpack Structure
Red Flags Comments
My Touring and Avi skills group with Utah Mountain Adventures today experienced a large collapse on a North facing slope at 9700ft near the summer trail on the walk up to Catherine's pass. A great learning opportunity for the crew. When we dug a snowpit we could clearly see poor snowpack structure.
Avalanche Problem #1
Problem
Persistent Weak Layer
Trend
Increasing Danger
Problem #1 Comments
Increasing danger as we start to add new snow and water to our very poor snowpack structure. I am finding a small-grained facet layer buried underneath a crust roughly 25 cm underneath the new snow surface on south aspects. We are not seeing avalanche acitivity on this layer because I believe we are lacking the slab. I did get results in my snowpits today on south aspects at 10k (ECT11 x 2)... Time will tell with this problem on solar's. Guilty until proven otherwise at this point.. On the bigger note, the shady aspects of NW-SE are harboring the November facets underneath the new slab. They are not going anywhere and we're still experiencing collapsing on them and seeing results in our snowpits. Over the last 4-5 days since the new snow the weak layer has adjusted to the new snow (slab) on top and has become harder to trigger, but the consequences remain the same.. That will all change as we start to add more snow (water) to our snowpack over the next week. I expect this weak layer to come back to life with the additional load. It's just so fragile...
Video
Upper LCC
North
9700 ft
22 degrees
ECTP 20
Large collapse experienced when approaching slope.
This solar problem is fascinating to me. I think there is a lot of variability going on with the solar aspects. Depth of snow across the slope, continuity of the crust, and weak layer. We have seen warming on solar's the last few days and that is going to help stabilize the snowpack there. The thermal crust is also stout, and will hold a lot of weight... I am interested to see what happens when we began to add more snow to the solar aspects.
Today's Observed Danger Rating
Considerable
Tomorrows Estimated Danger Rating
Considerable
